


Daddy's Little Girl

by SignCherie



Series: Daughter [4]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Daughter series, F/M, Gen, parenting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-14
Updated: 2013-06-14
Packaged: 2017-12-15 00:00:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/842943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SignCherie/pseuds/SignCherie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mr. Gold's little girl has a suitor, and that doesn't suit Gold at all. He decides to let the young man know that dating his daughter is not a good idea.</p>
<p>A gift for Beeeinyourbonnet from her prompt for overprotective Daddy!Gold.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Daddy's Little Girl

**Author's Note:**

  * For [beeeinyourbonnet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beeeinyourbonnet/gifts).



Someone was knocking at Mr. Gold’s door.

He ignored it. He was in his basement, trying to work, and couldn’t be interrupted. Belle or Holly would answer it, he was sure, and send whoever it was away.

The knock came again, louder and more insistent.

Gold tried to focus on what he was doing, but then the doorbell began to ring repeatedly, and he remembered that Belle had gone to the library for a few hours, and Holly could be locked in her room blasting her music. In frustration, he slammed his hand down on the table, then grabbed his cane and made for the stairs leading to the outside of his house.

There was a beat-up car in his driveway. As Gold crossed the lawn to approach the front door, he saw a tall, bulky young man, maybe eighteen or so, in a t-shirt and baseball cap, still pushing the doorbell. He didn’t notice Gold as he stalked up behind him.

“Something I can help you with, dearie?” he growled.

The intruder jumped in alarm, and Gold smiled in grim satisfaction.

“Mr. Gold! Sir.” The man fiddled with his fingers, and Gold gave him a once-over. He was unkempt, unshaven, his shirt half-tucked in, half hanging out, and Gold felt a sneer stretching his lips. “I’m sorry to bother you. I was just -- I’m here to see Holly.”

Gold blinked. “Holly?” Holly, his fourteen-year-old daughter, Holly?

“Yeah. We’re supposed to go to Granny’s, and I--”

The door swung open, and Holly popped out onto the porch. “Sorry I took so long! I was just getting all my stuff -- oh, hi, Papa!”

Gold stared in disbelief as Holly grabbed the stranger by the hand. “Tom and I are just going to Granny’s. I’ll be back before dinnertime. See you later!”

In an instant, Holly had pecked Gold on the cheek and flitted off toward the broken-down piece of machinery in the driveway, dragging the bedraggled young man behind her.

* * *

 

“Yes, Rumple, I do know who he is.” Belle’s voice crackled over the cell phone. “His name is Tom Weaver, he comes into the library all the time, and he’s working on a English project with Holly.”

“So he seeks out young girls and offers to do their schoolwork with them?” Gold was already in a rage. “What kind of reprobate--”

“He’s in her class, Rumple. They were assigned a project together.”

Gold sputtered. “How could he-- he’s got to be twenty years old!”

“Now, don’t exaggerate. He’s sixteen. And Holly tested into sophomore English, remember? It’s all perfectly fine.”

Gold was dumbstruck, but only for a moment. “And it doesn’t bother you in the slightest that your daughter was holding this delinquent’s hand?”

“Was she?” Instead of sounding angry as she ought to, Belle sounded delighted. “I wonder if she’s got a crush on him! Wouldn’t that be nice?”

“Nice?” No, that would not be nice. Nice would be this cretin sinking into a vat of molten lava and disappearing from their lives forever.

“Oh, Rumple. Don’t you want your daughter to be happy?”

Of course he did. “Of course I do. But don’t you think she’s a little young?”

“What age would you have her start dating?”

Gold thought fifty sounded reasonable, but he suspected Belle would disapprove if he said so. He pursed his lips and said nothing.

Perhaps she could read his thoughts, because she sighed. “I have a few more things to do here, but I’ll be leaving in a half hour. We can talk more when I get home. Will that be all right with you?”

Gold scowled. “Yes, all right. Later.”

“I love you, Rumplestiltskin.”

No matter how many years they were together, or how many times he heard those words, they always set his heart thumping. “Always and forever, sweetheart.”

They disconnected with a click, and Gold set the phone down. Maybe he couldn’t stop Holly from spending time with this Tom character, but he could make sure the bastard knew exactly whose daughter he was messing with. And what would happen to him if she was hurt.

* * *

It didn’t take that much poking around to discover that Tom Weaver worked part-time at the local furniture store after school and on weekends. So Saturday morning, when Gold saw the teenaged thug through the store’s windows, he decided it was time to make his move, and pushed open the glass door.

To Gold’s annoyance, it was the manager of the store who first approached him, shifting from foot to foot and looking as if he’d rather be anywhere else. “Mr. Gold,” the man said, licking his lips. “Is there anything I can help you find?”

Gold fixed his stare on him. “No, I don’t believe there is. But if you would fetch Mr. Weaver for me, I do believe I might be able to get what I came here for.”

The man’s eyes grew wide as saucers. “Yes, sir,” he said.

As the manager scurried away, Gold let a satisfied smirk spread across his face. No doubt the entire staff would be wondering what the boy had done to draw the dragon’s attention.

A few moments later, Tom Weaver approached him, looking barely more presentable than he had the other day. If the boy was nervous at being singled out, he did a rather good job of covering it, which irritated Gold to no end. He would have to work harder to intimidate him.

“Hello, Mr. Gold.” Tom smiled uncertainly. “It’s nice to see you again.”

“Mr. Weaver.” Gold did not smile. He planted his feet, set his cane directly in front of him and rested both hands on the handle, looking at the boy coldly.

The ruffian’s smile faltered. “Is there something I can help you with today?”

“Yes, indeed. I was looking for a chest.”

The boy bit the side of his lip. “We have a few in the back of the store. I can show you if you want.”

Gold grinned, showing his teeth. “That would be grand, dearie.”

Looking unsettled, Tom began to make his way toward the back of the store. Gold gripped his cane and followed.

“And how is your project with Holly coming along?” Gold inquired casually.

“Oh, that?” Tom glanced back at Gold. “Very well. Your daughter is brilliant, if you don’t mind me saying, sir.”

_Of course she is, you insignificant slug_.

“Oh, I’m well aware. And isn’t it nice she has you around to... work with her.”

Tom looked back over his shoulder at Gold uncertainly. “I really do enjoy spending time with your daughter, sir. If I might be honest, sir, I think she’s amazing.”

Gold had to remind himself that turning the little cretin into a toad would be a bad idea. Holly would be upset, to say nothing of the wrath Belle would bring down upon his head.

“Isn’t that nice,” Gold seethed instead. “And how lucky for Holly to have a new friend. I don’t think she’s had any male friends since the last one -- well, I’m sure you’ve heard.”

Tom stopped. “What last one?”

“Didn’t you know?” Gold tapped his cane with his finger. “Tragic story, that. The last young man who _befriended_ Holly disappeared without a trace. The police never discovered what happened to him, as I understand. Poor boy.”

Tom stared at Gold.

“Is this the chest you wanted to show me?” Gold knocked it lightly with his cane. “It’s much too small, I’m afraid. Do you have anything larger?”

“Oh,” Tom said. “Yes. There’s one over here. Solid oak, very pretty.”

“Hmm.” Gold eyed the new chest. “You know, I think it might do. Do you think a person could fit inside it?”

Tom’s face had gone white. “A person?”

“Maybe a person, oh, about your size?” Gold pretended to examine the young man.

“Um,” Tom said.

“Yes,” he said, drawing the word out thoughtfully, “I believe this will do very nicely. Have it delivered to my house next Saturday, will you? And put it on my account.”

Gold turned on his heel and walked away, a grin spreading over his face, leaving the young man to gape after him. No doubt the little thug would think twice about laying a finger on Gold’s little girl now.

* * *

 

Gold was pleased to see no sign of Tom Weaver anywhere near his house or his daughter over the next few days. He was even more pleased that neither Belle nor Holly seemed to have any idea what he’d done. All in all, Gold was rather proud of himself for how smoothly the whole thing had worked out.

The chest was his mistake.

It really was a pretty thing, so he had it put in the master bedroom. Which was, of course, where Belle noticed it.

“Rumple,” she said, drying her hair with a towel and eyeing the thing suspiciously, “what’s this?”

Gold picked a tie from his drawer and tried to be casual. “It’s a chest.”

Belle gave him a look. “Why is it here?”

“I bought it.”

“Why?”

“Don’t you like it?” Gold attempted to distract her from her question. “I thought it was pretty. We can put extra blankets in it.”

Belle walked forward until she was standing directly in front of him. Deliberately, she plucked the tie from his hands. “Rumplestiltskin. You know, Tom Weaver works at the furniture store.”

Gold kept his face coolly blank. “Is that so?”

Belle looped the tie carefully around his neck. “Please tell me you didn’t threaten that young man.”

Gold was fairly certain his wife wouldn’t actually strangle him, but the way she tightened the tie around his neck gave him pause. “I was perfectly polite,” he assured her.

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

Gold sighed, wishing that Belle didn’t know all his tricks. “I may have let him know that hurting Holly would be a very bad idea,” he admitted.

“I should have known.” Belle let go of the tie with a frown. “Rumple. What were you thinking? Do you know how embarrassed Holly will be?”

“She can’t be embarrassed by something she’s not aware of,” Gold said pointedly.

Belle crossed her arms. “You’re only lucky that whatever you said didn’t work.”

Gold froze. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that Holly is meeting Tom at the library today to finish their project, and I’ve invited him to dinner tonight.”

“What?” Gold couldn’t believe his wife would do this to him. “Why would you do that?”

“Because he’s Holly’s friend, and I want her friends to be welcome in this house. Baelfire is coming, too. And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll be perfectly civil to that young man.”

Listening to the way she talked to him, one would almost think he wasn’t the most feared man in town.

Belle started to turn away, but Gold grabbed her around the waist. “That’s not how I do business, dear,” he whispered in her ear. “What’s in it for me?”

Belle bit her lip and oh so casually tilted her head, exposing a long expanse of neck. “I can think of a thing or two I might be willing to trade.”

Gold pressed his lips to the base of her throat and pushed her gently towards the bed. “I think we might have a deal.”

Of course he would be civil to the little miscreant. Gold didn’t need to be rude to get his point across. He could be perfectly well-mannered and still make it clear that his daughter was off-limits to the presumptuous little thug.


End file.
